ANDREWS, NC – September 27, 2025 – One year ago, Hurricane Helene slammed into Western North Carolina, leaving behind more than just physical devastation.
The storm exposed critical gaps in how emergency information reaches residents when every second counts. Today, Clay County leads North Carolina with the state’s first direct public safety broadcast system, an innovation born from the hard lessons of September 27, 2024.
The communication breakdown during Helene wasn’t just inconvenient, it was dangerous. Emergency alerts posted on social media platforms like Facebook often took hours to reach residents due to algorithm delays, leaving people vulnerable when they needed information most. If residents checked social feeds at all, what emergency officials posted at 10 PM might not appear in residents’ feeds until 10 AM the next day, long after critical decisions needed to be made.
“During Helene, working in a support role to the affected areas, we saw how quickly communication systems can break down and how dangerous that becomes,” said Chief Deputy Todd Wingate of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. “By using the VS Connects app as our Public Safety Channel we are able to fill a life-saving gap that social media simply can’t. People using the app get fast, trusted updates when they need them most. I believe that’s why we are seeing major interest and rapid adoption of a new technology, especially from people on Facebook.”
The solution emerged from an unlikely partnership. In October 2024, Jackie Gottlieb, President and CEO of Hinton Rural Life Center, a regional Methodist retreat and service organization, in Hayesville, North Carolina, convened local officials to address the communication failures that left communities isolated during the storm. Those meetings brought together law enforcement, emergency services, and technology innovators to design something entirely new for North Carolina.
The result is the VS Connects app (Apple and Android), developed by Virtual Storefronts of Andrews, NC, which allows the Clay County Sheriff’s Office to send instant, verified alerts directly to residents’ phones. Social media drains batteries and eats up bandwidth. It forces emergency information to compete with birthday announcements and cat videos for attention. VS Connects sends Instant Alerts that bypass algorithms entirely and appear immediately on users’ lock screens, saving time, battery life and internet bandwidth.
“After Helene, we realized that hoping for better communication next time wasn’t enough, we needed to actively bring the right people together to create solutions,” Gottlieb explained. “Sometimes the most important leadership is simply creating the space for innovation to happen.”
The system operates on a three-tier approach. For non-emergency information, the Sheriff’s Office continues using Facebook as the primary channel with the VS app as backup. For time-sensitive public safety alerts, the priorities flip, the VS app delivers instant notifications while Facebook serves as secondary distribution. For life-threatening emergencies, the system uses both VS Connects and Nixle (a text-based automated weather alert system) for immediate alerts, with Facebook providing broader but slower distribution.
For the first time ever, the Clay County Sheriff has a way to send emergency messages instantly to the public in seconds.
Over 150 Clay County residents have already signed up for the instant alerts, recognizing what Facebook cannot provide: real-time delivery when it matters most. The early adoption demonstrates public appetite for reliable emergency communication that doesn’t depend on corporate algorithms designed for engagement rather than urgent information.
Tobin Broguiner, founder and CEO of Virtual Storefronts, developed new functionality to adapt the just-launched VS Shopping app into VS Connects for emergency messaging after witnessing how local communities struggled with online visibility during emergencies. “Most communities don’t realize that during emergencies, what you post at 10 PM may not reach your audience until 10 AM the next day, after the damage is done,” Brogunier said. “Our system ensures the right people get the right information at the right time.”
The team behind the innovation gained national attention when U.S. Representative Chuck Edwards recognized the Clay County Sheriff’s Office on the House Floor in July 2025, entering their Hurricane Helene response into the Congressional Record. Edwards noted how Clay County first responders “did not return to business as usual” after the storm but instead “immediately sprang into action to assist counties in desperate need.”
The technology addresses a problem that extends far beyond Clay County. Rural and urban communities across America struggle with emergency communication challenges, often lacking the resources for sophisticated alert systems while remaining vulnerable to natural disasters and other crises. The Clay County model offers a scalable solution that other jurisdictions can adapt.
As the anniversary of Hurricane Helene approaches, the innovation represents more than technological advancement, it embodies a commitment to ensuring the communication failures of September 27, 2024, never happen again in North Carolina. The partnership between the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Virtual Storefronts and The Hinton Rural Life Center, which hosted the official launch of the Clay County Sheriff’s Public Safety Channel at their September 2025 Disaster Preparedness Workshop, shows how communities can transform a crisis into a solution.
The system has already proven its worth during severe weather and protest events this year, delivering alerts without delays or algorithm interference. For a community that experienced firsthand the consequences of communication breakdowns, the ability to receive verified, instant information represents both practical improvement and peace of mind.
Other North Carolina counties and sheriff’s offices are watching Clay County’s approach as they consider their own emergency communication needs.
Adopters are also showing an interest in similar alerts about disruptions from internet service providers, electricity providers, the Tennessee Valley Authority, local news outlets, schools and mayors. True to their commitment to listen to what communities need, Virtual Storefronts has made it possible for anyone who wants to hear from local officials to make their request known at virtualstorefronts.co/vote.
What began as a response to one devastating storm may well become the blueprint for public safety communication across the state. In Clay County, residents can now rest assured that when the next emergency strikes, they won’t be left wondering when critical information will reach them. Sometimes the best way to safeguard the future is to learn from the past.
This article references reporting from the feature article in the September 11, 2025 Clay County Progress, “Prepare for disasters before they strike,” by Staff Writer Lorainne Bennett
